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Show AT AGE OF 101 WOULD REBUILD HIS FORTUNE Oil King Ruined by Soviet Confiscation Is Still an Optimist I BAKU, Azerbaijan. Mareh 1. (By , The Associated Press i--At the ie of 101 years, Hadji Tagiev. Baku's former oil king, who wiir ruined " soviet nationalization of bis property, has a(ar(ed to rebuild hi fortunfsl I where he began as a stone maso L I Hadji Taslev is an optimist ' V man Isn't old so long as he can , work,-' he declared and, like a true 9ilneSUlman he continues to dye hlsj white hair brown. He Is using his spare moments in j learning to write. Kor more than I 80 years he had signed his name to i i business papers by making his niark J with a blunt ntlelc dipped In Ink ' One must keep up with the times," he explained to eurloua friends when ; the centenarian began to take lessons les-sons Tugiev is known to Americans I through his reception In his Baku' ; palace two and a half years ago of I the General James H Harbord mission. mis-sion. He was and Is know n through ! out Russia and the mlddh e.,.st u an example of a poor man who be. came Immensely wealthy, firl a a house builder and then. 0 u,tr igo i through the purchase of a piece of oil i land that yielded abundantly. Thl-j Thl-j was in the days when oil was gath-; gath-; ered close to the surface and takn i from wells i ,i buckets When the Azerbaijan republic j sovletlzed by Moscow, his palace was ! converted Into a children's orpha i-I i-I ago and Its treasures of art and tan-I tan-I estry scattered. While trying to take some of his silver plate and paintings to the country in ox carte apparently laden with stra w, a r.d I sentinel at the outskirts of the cl.y discovered and seized the escaping wealth. Tagiev was beloved by tli workmen of Baku and wa not I harmed In person He Is now living In the village o' Marda Khanl, near here. |